private Birdsong and particle air ✶ Chrysaliswing

[Owlheart]

Requesting Chrysaliswing's assistance in sparring had turned into a semi-regular occurrence for Owlheart. Originally she thought it would be a thing that would happen every so often in her final moments of being a ‘paw’ now it was a pretty common expectation. Once the two of them had a shared moment of free time she would more often than not approach him for his guidance. There had been leaps and strides in her confidence surrounding this particular skill set over the course of the warriors guidance. The tabby liked to believe that there were improvements anyways, perhaps he would disagree but she hadn't asked him.

There was a conflict in Owlheart's mind to regard Chrysaliswing as a peer instead of a superior now that she was no longer an apprentice. Though, to her he was still a superior in the sense that he had moons of experience as a warrior. At least in comparison to her fresh new wobbly steps into these experiences, this still led her to be overly formal with him yet that guarded politeness had slowly started to dissipate over the passing moons as well. Today was no different, she could feel her heart pounding as she took a moment of reprieve in the sunlight that twinkled through the follicle surrounding them.

A break was always good, Owlheart was more than happy to indulge in one. As she took these moments to catch her breath and rest her limbs she glanced at the chimera. Strangely enough, she enjoyed speaking with him, when he wasn't insulting her intelligence or capabilities she had found him to be really insightful. There was an appreciation for how blunt he was about things, between these requests of training she found herself striking up more conversations with him. These conversations were not limited to just when she was practicing with him but it was more often than not.

“How's being a mentor?” She was still surprised that he was assigned an apprentice but that wasn't evident in her tone. The surprise didn't stem from his capabilities, if she didn't find his skills above competent then she wouldn't have sought him out for help. It was rather a surprise that her mother had seemed to push aside his rather acidic attitude to assign him a young clan-mate to teach and form. She doesn't like to question Orangestar's decisions after all, she just assumed that the SkyClan leader had more foresight then her regarding this choice.

“Have you mentored before? Is it going well?” She continued her questioning, earnestly curious. There were other questions on the tip of her tongue. Such as what he thought about Jaypaw, if she was nice or not. The warrior thought that she was pretty pleasant but she hadn't really spoken with the apprentice to form a lasting judgement.

@CHRYSALISWING
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[CHRYSALISWING]

Chrysaliswing found his impromptu, unofficial mentorship of the now-warrior Owlheart to be a sort of reprieve for pent-up emotions. Fighting was the one time that the chimaera found the tension in his body melting away, as though the churning water within him had steamed through tips of whiskers and threads of fur, becoming lighter and unburdened if only for momentary minutes. In a way, the dance of conflict was much like a soundless conversation. One could express their grievances and sorrows with strikes and gashes upon the pelt. And, much like the heavy-handed word, it left lasting impressions upon malleable, clay flesh. The tomcat had taken well to Owlheart, at least, as though she were more of an apprentice than his actual one could ever be. Jaypaw never seemed to listen to anything the chimaera had to say, no matter what the topic was. To him, she might as well have been lashing out because she derived some sick pleasure from it. Hot breaths huffed from a brimstone maw, espresso and night tones bristled against the light of day, like he were created from the hems of evening's last throes. Though he enjoyed the thrill of battle, he also knew when to call in a break. He shook beads of sweat from his crown and his whiskers - he had worked both he and Owlheart quite a lot. There was some pride to be gleaned from that, at least.

"It's not going well at all." Blunt honesty made no effort to conceal itself from his tongue, just as he wouldn't dare snub the brilliance of the sun, or wouldn't dare steal the teeth from a yawning wolf. Chrysaliswing never truly believed in mincing one's intent behind a guise of niceties, and he figured that the world would run a lot smoother if everyone just spoke their mind. The longhaired feline cared little for the status quo that remained diligent in its rigidity. "I've mentored once, before. It did not go well, either. Leaders just love to pawn off their problem children onto me, I guess." He grumbled, with a feathery tail lashing behind him in a rather brusque manner, as though an agitated snake fraught upon the wildgrasses. In some manner, he saw himself through the defiant glare of the younger molly, and yet there was little he did to bridge this gap. "Jaypaw's an annoying little brat who thinks she knows everything. Any time I try to drag her sorry ass out to train, she always complains and cries and screams. She's an embarassment to me. Great Starclan, if only she were anything like you..." He pressed one paw to his forehead in a show of exasperation.

𝘯𝘰 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 ⚠︎ 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘦

• OOC:
  
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  —— CHRYSALISWING / He/They / 24 Moons
  —— Warrior of Skyclan / Mentoring n/a
  —— A long-haired tomcat with chimaeric patterning. His left side is fully black and his right side is black splotched with sunset-orange. He has complete heterochromia, with his right eye being a bright green and his left eye being a glowering yellow.
  —— Abrasive, temperamental, and critical. Approach at your own risk and engage at your own cost. Despite this, he is a hard worker and quick to call out what he finds wrong.
  —— Penned by Tempest. Contact on Discord (naruk4mi) for plots and threads.

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[Owlheart]

While she held appreciation for Chrysaliswing’s blunt honesty she was still caught off guard at times. Just because she was appreciative didn’t mean that she ever expected it whenever he truly did speak his mind, it kept her on her paws though. It seemed that he kept her as quick and reactive not only during their spars but during social situations too. “Hm, I'm sorry to hear that it's not going well” she thought Jaypaw was pretty nice, they hadn’t personally spoken but she didn’t presume that she was outwardly mean. Owlheart shuffled so that she could recline under the shade of a tree, a tired exhale of air being sighed from her nose. She had improved, things weren’t as tiring as it used to be when they first started to spar and yet she couldn’t say that this was some kind of walk in the park.

As she moved to the nice and shady spot she gave a nod of recognition to the chimera as he further grumbled over his past mentoring and his theories of how mentors just seem to love to pawn off their problem child. That brought a quiet laugh from her, what would he deem a problem child? “I didn’t realise you’ve mentored before. I’m sure that you’re not being given ‘problem children’ out of malicious intent, maybe you’re just recognised as someone who won’t shy away from pushing back." She was pretty certain that he did not get along with her mother but Owlheart didn’t think that she would give him a purposefully difficult apprentice. Not that it was really her business even if she did, Orangestar was the leader after all and she wouldn’t question a decision she made.

She couldn’t help but blink in surprise at his exasperation, at this point if he was attentive he would have gathered she only really blinked in rapid succession like that if she was surprised or confused about something. Wide and large golden eyes seemingly peered through him as she tried to gain an understanding on his words. “Well, isn’t she young?” Admittedly she didn’t exactly know how old the apprentice was, it could just be that she was difficult but the ginger tabby wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. “What do you mean by anything like me? I think you would have grown tired over how much I overthink, I was even worse when I was younger” if she had Chrysaliswing as a mentor properly she may have grown to be more confident. That she was certain of, though it would have been a trail through fire, she could only imagine it ending in tears for her at some point.

She was happy to properly speak to him when she did, while sometimes she was offended by his words she overall really loved his company. She would dare call him a friend but she wasn’t sure what he would even say to that. “Do you think you’ll ask Orangestar to not be given another apprentice after this? Is that even a thing you could do?” Another question would be would her mother just do it anyways?
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